Unofficial news and tips about Google

June 26, 2008

Google Tests the New iGoogle

Announced in April, the new version of iGoogle that brings social applications is tested in a small number of randomly selected Google accounts.

The new iGoogle places the tabs on the left-hand side of the page and you can expand the tabs to see the list of gadgets and status information, like the number of unread Gmail messages. There's a new chat feature borrowed from Gmail that lets you chat with your contacts while visiting iGoogle - that means iGoogle gets a sense of presence because you'll know when your contacts are online. Since the chat feature will be enabled by default, it's obvious that Google will be able to add options for sharing items and discussing posts with the contacts that are online.

iGoogle also adds a list of updates from your contacts similar to Facebook's newsfeed: you can see stories shared by your contacts in Google Reader, recent photos uploaded to Picasa Web Albums, Google Talk status messages, shared iGoogle themes and gadgets.

Another change is that gadgets have an expanded interface, called canvas view. Gadgets authors will take advantage of this to display more information and make their gadgets more interactive, while your feeds can be read in a Google Reader-like interface. In the future, iGoogle will support OpenSocial applications and the transformation to a social site will be complete.

Google announced that the canvas view will be rolled out to a small percentage of users this month and to more users in July, while the OpenSocial applications "will not work in production until later this summer".

The chat boxes will continue to be displayed at the bottom of the page when you switch to a new iGoogle tab. Since they are a part of iGoogle, it's impossible to make them persistent without using a plug-in (think about Google Notebook's mini-window).

There is a great IGoogle Gadget called the CometNow Video Viewer. Let's you stream video from your Windows Mobile Phone or computer directly into IGoogle. The Android client has already been developed and is only waiting for handsets to arrive. The software is easy to use and lets you stream Live Video in real time with no buffering issues. Apple features coming soon. http://www.cometnow.com/gadget_setting.aspxThis gadget makes your video truly portable and your friends with IGoogle can see your video Live as well! Great add on for Google Chat...

The "new" and "improved" google IG does not work on mobile browsers; completely forget the "stuff" you add on your cell phone, redirects you, when looking for help, to dead help links and does not allow you to open the content on a new page or tab on your desktop, DUE TO ALL THESE INCONVENICES IT COMPLETELY SUCKS.

This new format and "left navigation" are trible and canvas view makes all the links i had on my page not work. what i don't understand is why i was volenteired or how to fix my page to be like it was, as it is i changed my mind about google and no longer consider them a "good" organization if google wanted bata testers they could just ask like normal companies do

@jasondoes:Nobody forces you to use iGoogle. If you want a personalized homepage, there are many good alternatives (Netvibes, Pageflakes, My Yahoo), but you can always use the classic Google homepage, which is even cleaner than in 1998.

You guys realize that this is not the final solution right? Things dont work yet because its still in progress. Also this seems to be taking "old style" gadgets and displaying them in the new framework.. when gadgets are re-written to fit/work properly in the new style I think it will be great. This format is exactly what I was waiting for. I hate haveing a new browser tab/window open for gmail/calendar/reader etc. This way I just tab through them via javascript.

If you use firefox and you dislike this feature I would strongly encourage you to try this add-on to help turn off the left navigation bar:https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/521(Search: "remove it permanently", if the link doesn't work)

@Brad:Discussion boards for Google's products aren't necessarily a relevant sample since most people will visit them to complain and to report bugs. If you like the new interface, you won't go to the iGoogle group to express your appreciation.

It's also easy to understand that many people hate change and they will complain every time Google redesigns a service, removes a feature or replaces the favicon.

"Your methodology is very heavy-handed. I am a retired executive from the old-days of computing (IBM and the BUNCH). We could never have imagined changing the interface of our customer's tools without asking permission. In many cases, we would have to support old versions of software for years after we thought we had newer and better products, just because our customers had gotten used to the way the old versions worked and had modified their habits to accommodate us. It would be considered the highest form of arrogance to force changes on them without their permission. Part of the wrath you are hearing from your users is because of your methodology, and the fact that it's way too hard to give you feedback."

The new igoogle doesn't work one of my machines - it locks up, it wastes space on the left, it puts the tabs way down on the left so I have to scroll down to get at them, gadget titles spill over obscuring the items. I don't like the canvas mode because you have to scroll up and down to get out of it. And above all, it was forced on me with no way out. What did they do, fire all the good guys at Google and hire Microsoft staff? They must immediately let us switch back. The javascript fix mentioned above doesn't work.

I have problems with the new igoogle and my gmail gadget. Reads email incorrectly and makes it so I cannot use some links in mail. I also wold prefer the option to move it, or disable it, for it is an unnecessary function for me.

I hate the new features. They don't work very well at all and the left side navigation is useless and takes up space. I liked the old version because you could customize how it looked. I would like to be able to go back to the old system. As it is now I've stopped using iGoogle until/unless they fix it. I'm one of the people who was forced into the "experiment". If I wanted to Beta test something I would have signed up for it.

I have typed this into the address bar while my igoogle was open and it did not bring back the old version. All it did was refresh the new verson of igoogle. Please help....I really am getting frustrated with this new verson! THANKS!!

The new igoogle sucks. I tried the javascript and it did not bring the old version back. Were is this stupid survey they said they would ask us to take after we tried it? I want to tell them it SUCKS! Anybody have any other way to get the old version back that actually works? I am very frustrated with this.

I agree that gmail is more cumbersome and there's more vertical scrolling -- still, it's not like we had to buy this. I mean, it's free! If Google wants to keep its users, it'll figure out how to fix these problems. It always has in the past...

geez, and is it just me or do LINKS IN EMAIL not actually LINK anymore?!?!?! wtf?! screw firing the guy who changed this on me without my fing permission.... waterboarding IS legal right?!?! if they want to keep this google user happy, they'll find a way to waterboard him and quick!

I HATE the new look and cannot remove it! GOOGLE why are you doing this. You rnew look is AWFUL and so irritating. I am about to switch to netvibes....You guys suck releasing something without givin your users a choice to opt out!

I HATE HATE HATE the NEW iGOOGLE look but what I HATE the most I cannot get my old one back!

I have always had an ordinary GOOGLE search homepage. This is what I want. Suddenly Google bombards me with a tricksy, cluttered page full of things I neither want nor need. I am interested in Google as a search engine. How do I get THAT and ONLY THAT, back as my homepage ?

I don't like it as much as the old one. Gmail doesn't work as well - half the text is off the page and links don't open.I don't like the big menu on the left; I know whats on my page, that is the whole idea yeah? - I made it.

i've tried allsorts of things to get back to my old Google homepage. Some thigns work for a while but I always end up with the crappy left-hand navigation, or it disappears and my tabs have gone too. It may be free, but I've invested a lot of time into getting it how I want. I use it to share calendars and also to view gmail.If it wasn't for the calendars I'd go to netvibes, which seems a pretty decent home page. Google is really pissing me off now.

Hello everyone...just when I get used to the way things are and work they go and change things. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. I have viewed the new igoogle and like many of the new features. One thing I can see that I don't like is the new sidebar that takes up more space. I am hoping that Google will give us a way to hide the side bar. I'm sure someone will come up with something in the future, but, it would be GREAT if Google will integrate it into the new igoogle so that I can use a computer from anywhere and get what I want without adding more gadgets or firefox add-ons.

I am in complete agreement with most of the comments here. I HATE the new igoogle, and like others was NOT consulted about what I want! In order to actually read my gmail in the old format where I CAN do forwards, etc. I have to click the link at the top of the page. The Gmail gadget on my home page is useless! I ALSO hate the sidebar thing! It takes up too much space and I LIKED viewing the tabs on top! I am going to try the "fix" and hope it works. Google, with the majority of people HATING this new igoogle, I think you'd better do something to fix it fast, or you will be losing a LOT of customers! I can't get chat to work now either!

The new interface sucks up valuable real estate and generally slows things up. I switched from myYahoo when they went all fancy. iGoogle was good (not great). But, the new interface is worse. Off to find another portal.

...and there we have it - google has finally gone evil. today i was switched to the new interface, against my will. i'm dumbfounded to find out that this has been going on for months. am i expected to be a beta tester for months? running buggy unusable crap? well, tough luck. i just switched back to classic and now i'll have no idea when this mess is solved... guess i'm off igoogle for good, then.

Google does not care aboout its users. Google directs your to a discussion where you can leave feedback about the new iGoogle. About 95% of the messages are negative. Almost no one likes this new layout, especially the left nav bar without any option of turning this off. Obviously Google could care less what its users think or it would never have instituted this without a way to turn it off. And it obviously is not paying attention to any feedback. Unbelievable.

I hate the new iGoogle. Not because it is new, and people complain about change. Because experimentaliGoogle was forced on me, because it does not function, because it is a waste of screenspace, because it messes up a personalized page, because there is no outlet for discussion, because it conflicts with most of Google corporate statment, because the "javascript fix" does not work, etc. Should I go on, Ionut Alex Chitu? You must work for Google to spin this so hard.

Can anyone recommend another browser? I liked the choices before they went fascist!

I don't work for Google and I think they made a mistake by not providing an option to go back to the classic iGoogle, but you should be aware that this new version of iGoogle will be rolled out to all users in the coming months. The interface change is related to a major direction shift, as iGoogle gadgets become more social and need more space.

Some of the gadgets will display state information in the title (e.g.: the number of unread messages), so all this information can be visible in the new sidebar. There's also a persistent chat feature that needs a consistent position in the UI.

This is sjburnt again, I respect you for answering me, that is more than I could get from Google. Thank you.

I am disappointed with Google because I liked their product. Now I will need to find an alternate, and I do not think there is anything similar out there. I will have to switch email addresses, calendars, etc.

Oh well, I guess I should quit complaining and go to work. It was too good to last. Goodbye Google.

I also dislike the new iGoogle and am very disappointed in the way Google made this change. I won't use it, and I know Google doesn't care about that. But they should care about what this is doing to their name and reputation because there are many more like me.

was forced on me, because it does not function, because it is a waste of screenspace, because it messes up a personalized page, because there is no outlet for discussion, because it conflicts with most of Google corporate statment, because the "javascript fix" does not work, etc. Should I go on?

* because it conflicts with most of Google corporate statement - which part? "Always deliver more than expected. Google does not accept being the best as an endpoint, but a starting point. Through innovation and iteration, Google takes something that works well and improves upon it in unexpected ways."

* because the "javascript fix" does not work - that's not Google's problem. I thought it will work, so I posted the code. Some people said it works, others said it doesn't work.

The new IGoogle is not accessable by IE7. I continue to receive the message " IE can not open the internet site http://www.google.com/ig? etc etc etc....I have found I can still access my Gmail account if I go to "Ask" and "Yahoo" and perform a google search. Great, I've had my tabs set in IGoole and had not a single problem until today. What the hell are you doing at Google? If it wasn't for my Gmail account I'd leave Google and use another search engine. We don't need problems forced on us.

I can no longer access my igoogle home page.Big warning pops up that Windows Internet Explorer cannot open the site.See comment by Anonymous on Aug 28,2008 above."What the hell are you doing at Google?"You must have hired some government employees.Something works fine so you change it until it no longer works at all. At this point I cannot even get the standard search page to come up. Any idea how to fix this?

I am having the same issues as others: I cannot load the iGoogle interface in IE7 as the "Internet Explorer Cannot Load the the internet Site...etc. Operation Aborted!" messages. My hope is someone at Google will communicate that there is an issue and will let me know when this will be resolved....umm...please!

I haven't made any changes to my IGoogle, I'm still using what I've always used and now I can't access it. All I get is a pop up with a red and white cross stating "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site.(gives my igoogle url)Operation Aborted

RE "I haven't made any changes to my IGoogle, I'm still using what I've always used and now I can't access it. All I get is a pop up with a red and white cross stating "Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site.(gives my igoogle url)Operation Aborted

Getting really fed up with it >:o/ "......................................I've fixed it. It was all down to the stockmarket/finance/shareprice widget.

I can't open igoogle with my IE. What gives? Get message that IE can't open google and that operation aborted. Tried all the fixes suggested, nothing works, switched to Yahoo and it works fine. What is the solution, is MS not wanting to support Google???

I am not impressed, I find it anonoying to use. I am looking forward to the the time you listen to those you forced it on & dump the whole Idea. Or at the very least a way to go back to tne way it was. If not very soon you may loose me as a user

It's now the evening of 8/30/08 and the bad info about how to cure the igoogle/IE disaster is still circulating. One cannot remove the financial widget if it isn't present! The real cure is to simply switch to My Yahoo (or similar) for a bit and ride out the storm. Actually I moved from My Yahoo to Igoogle because of the ads overwhelming the content. Yahoo has changed this recently much to the better.

If you want to remove the new IG, go to www.google.fr/ig instead of your usual www.google.com/ig . Apparently they did not make the change in france so they still have the old version. Good luck in fighting to remove this new piece of shit ! Go Classic IG !!

Fix.......Fix.......fix....I used system restore to get my google.ig page back. Went back 10 days and everything back to normal. No more "IE-7 cannot load page".Is this a virus or glitch by Windows and/or Google?Watch your downloads from Windows. Imagine what the cash flow is from a million users changing their home pages!!

i have not been able to access my homepage at all. It coincided with my using/borrowing a laptop, so I figured it was a computer problem. Then I find out that my daughter at home cannot open her homepage. I do a search.. didn't realize there was a change. It obviously doesn't work for me.. what is being worked on?

I need to remind you that this just an unofficial blog about Google, not Google's support center. There's a thread about this bug in iGoogle's group, but the only suggested workaround is to remove the Google Finance Portfolios gadget from the settings page.

It isn't only the finance gadget that is buggy. Mine now works after I removed the weather map.

The suggestion to go to google.com/ig/settings and remove the buggy gadget is good, you just have to figure out which one it is. Don't forget to save the setting change... and here's a tip... save the settings url in your favorites or copy it in. If you remove a non-buggy gadget the page still won't load but you will be taken to it anyway and you will see it abort. You can remove the complicated gadgets until it works.

You can also remove all of them and add them back in one at a time, but hit save after every addition to check page loading, since we apparently can't trust that these things work.

While it may be an unofficial blog (and I do appreciate the effort to keep it up and running), trying to find actual Google support is harder than trying to find... well, let's just say it is hard to find. Plus, when you google the problem, this site comes up near the top and google sites are not evident.

I liked the new iGoogle, had it, got used to it, then one day -- gone. Back to the old one. I would like to revert back to the NEW iGoogle...any ideas how I can do that, or why my new switched back to the old?

If you are using Firefox as your browser, you can remove the Home navigation on the left side of the new iGoogle page. Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/521. If you are not using Firefox and are still using IE or something else, you should really check out Firefox. I did a year ago and have never looked back...

Firefox on my Mac at home never changed from the regular google page. Firefox on my PC at work mysteriously changed to iGoogle a week ago, and I found this page in trying to understand why.

Does Google implement this iGoogle thing at random? Like others above, I really prefer the plain Google page. But I not only want to get rid of it, I want to understand how they chose my PC for it? I don't get it? What happened? And, not complaining, but why didn't it happen to my Mac at the same time?

New igoogle is ok, but I don't like tabs on the left side, i need that space on my laptop and dont need the social/chat feature enabled. gone back to classic igoogle. i'd prefer a more compact layout for this too. perhaps an autohide for the tabs and search box along top. i am at 1024x600 most of the time.

The only thing I have about the new iGoogle is the Chat tab... it's perma-on, and that's not good. I don't use Chat in Gmail really at all, so I don't see the need to have it on iGoogle at all. It would be an absolutely great thing to put the same type of things for the Chat tab as you put for the other tabs like "Edit this Tab," "Share this Tab," and "Delete this Tab."

Please, I had to revert to the old version just to rid myself of the Chat tab.

This morning igoogle loaded into IE6 without error for the first time in a week without my changing anything! Good thing since none of the "cures" listed above worked for me (no financial gadgets). Nice to have it back.

I have not used my igoogle since the day it arrived. It has stopped me viewing attachments in HTML and hence requesting possible shifts at my second job. Stopped me reading the news because I have to click on tabs and reduced the viewing area for information I am actually interested in. Has anyone at Google ever read any thing on usability (Nielsen, Kurg etc etc) I doubt it given this useless advancement.

in the last few days, the links on the left hand side have stopped working. I'm stuck on whatever page I'm on. Doesn't matter what I click on on the left-had tabs -- the page just reloads with the same content.

Please fix -- I'm sick of closing browser tabs and re-opening to get to my stuff.

I don't like the new igoogle at all. It seems to me that they have changed it just for the sake of change without any actual improvements, i find it less useful and annoying to use. Is there anyway to revert back to the old one? (which was great)

Don't like the new igoogle? this link shows you how to get the old one back. http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help-Personalizing/browse_thread/thread/d102394ce219fe79/ Method two worked for me in Chrome. Thanks Dave! I really hope Google don't persist with this new version, since Igoogle is really great and it would be a shame to ruin it like this.

i think it sux balls! how much more can you cram on my home page. really am i going to have to stop using iGoogle and maybe even Google now. offer me a way to get rid of the ugly ass crap and let me choose what i want on my home page.

Last night Firefox commandeered my laptop, which was asleep, chucked all my open tabs and dox, installed Firefox 3.0.1 (which I was postponing until I'd researched the implications of the new version) and this morning I find this new iGoogle with the obtrusive left nav. Usually Google is good enough to allow opting out. But this time users are strong-armed and thereby strips away the dignity of individual choice from being an iGoogle user. "You VILL submit to the new iGoogle!" Not cool. Don't wanna. Don't like it. Too crowded. A feature that I don't need, want, ask for, value, appreciate. I agree with the commenter above me, and many others. If we're not afforded a straightforward way to opt out of the new feature I am abandoning ship, and taking others with me. I am a user experience advocate by profession. And both for technical and philosophical reasons I reject this whole iGoogle endeavor. And Google should not be rewarded for creating a situation that makes people feel powerless, and requires a fairly high level of energy, perseverance, determination, and technical ability to take control of their experience. Most people (not anyone on this thread, because we do have the energy, perseverance, determination, and/or technical ability to manipulate the system) will simply sigh and acquiesce. That is doing evil, Google. Stripping away power and choice from users and forcing them down one prescribed way of behaving vs empowering them is Wrong. Yes, capital "W" wrong. If Google didn't make populist self-righteous mantra about "Do no evil" no one would complain about Google's behaving as a traditional ruthless business whose mantra might be "By whatever means necessary." Once Google pronounced itself morally superior to other businesses by doing no evil, they set the playing field to a moral and ethical one. Which is fine. But if we scrutinize Google in terms of how well it's holding up its social and moral/ethical contract -- as we do since those are the terms set by Google -- it is failing. And Google's proported moral superiority and resulting hypocrisy is a big part of the problem. But mostly, personally, I despise the left nav and want it gone. I will not proclaim I'll dump Google for certain. But if not alternate solution -- or an indication from Google that it has consciously changed tacks to behave with the dismissive arrogance of any bully or big dog (corporation or otherwise) or gets some humility and allows the will of the users to exercise itself, rather than bowing to Google's will, I will start seriously looking at ways to navigate away from this whole Google paradigm and suite of solutions. And--having worked for a large global web company myself--I know how badly Google needs its advertising dollars, associated with search. To have a mass movement away from Google search would bankrupt Google. But push people far enough, and we will pull Google's cash cow plug, by simply walking away. In the meantime, I will start stirring the pot virally and person-to-person within my own social and professional networks.

I just got blindsided with this new left navigation about 30 minutes ago and have been frantically looking for a way to remove it! I don't use many of the features it's supposed to be good for and i'm frustrated that my screen is lop-sided with all my important information squished to the left. Any words of wisdom?

What can you do if you don't like the new layout?Speficily I don't like the gmail displaying my previews to the world. I also don't like having tabs on the side. I now have to scroll in two directions to get all my content

HATE THIS! I want my old igoogle back. I hate how gmail is previewed. I liked the old version of just titles, everything fit on one page that I could easily skim and expand if I wanted to. This new one, with no opt out, sprung on us, sucks.

If Google sees fit to force me to use their new and unimproved tab layout then I will be forced to go find a new home page. The new tabs layout sucks badly and I want my old set up back. NOW! Google is supposed to not be evil but these unilateral "upgrades" are very, very Microsoft-esque.

What happened to my Google homepage??? Before lunch it was clean and user friendly and now it looks like a giant beta version of poor planning and wasted space!!! Please let users select the version that works best for us.

Tab on the left is useless. Sad that this was done without my consent. Now i have a long gray strip of nothingness where my beautiful page used to be. :( You said i could personalize the page, so i did. Now you changed it. What gives? Are you trying to make everyone hate updated firefox so they will switch to chrome for a fix?

My homepage just refreshed and changed to the new version! I HATE it. The tabs on the left are a huge waste of space since I'm working on a regular screen--no widescreen here yet. I loathe the fact that I cannot minimize the previews of my feeds to just show the headlines! Google took a tool I loved and turned it to crap! It's annoying to use now. Google, please give us the option to change it back to the old version!!!

I can't believe I have just been forced to accept a tab that takes up almost 33% of the page. There is NOTHING under that tab! It is a waste of space! They cannot force me to add garbage to that tab just to fill the blank space. And now the headlines and other items, that I conscientiously picked out for myself, are squished and cut off. Google is losing touch with one of the things that made it so attractive - its simplicity and its NOT forcing content onto the page. Google is becoming The Man. We'll call it GMan.

As the rest of you have mentioned, this change is complete crap. After spending tons of time getting excactly what I need to see all on one page, now I have to scroll again. Plus it has broken a couple of key gadgets that I use. I guess it is time to search for a new home page, although I am not sure what that will be.

AAAAAHHHH!!!!!! I just got this stupid new igoogle layout, and like many before me I HATE IT! WTF were they thinking?!? The side tabs waste a hole inch of screen space on the side crushing everything else. Many of my gadgets don't work as well. I hate the layout of the gmail gadget. All the gadgets take up more vertical space. The little + buttons to see expanded views of rss type feeds are gone.

I can see the left side expandable tabs being useful if a typical person had 20 tabs, but I have 1, which means I have a stupid blue stripe up the left side.

And of course this is google, there is no way to contact them to tell them to pull their collective head out of their collective ass.

Absolute rubbish. It used to be so customisable, now you're stuck with that useless waste-of-an-inch along the left margin. Is Google trying to be more like Microsoft or something? Like Anonymous above, I'm going to use the country-specific iGoogle that has not been messed with. Why not at least give people the option to keep their layout the same as it was before?

I hate this. It takes up way too much space and I am having trouble with my gmail now. I also don't like or need the side tabs. If this is the future of igoogle, I'm going back to the classic view. If I had wanted Google Reader, I'd be using Google Reader.

I just got the old one back. That's good. I hope they do some serious bugfixes before they roll it out again, if they ever do. If I could minimize the sidebar (perhaps have the tabs displayed as small vertical bars) and if they put the minimize icon back on the individual gadgets, I would be much happier.

just got a brand new asus eee. luv it. now igoogle has used up a fourth of my screen with that sidebar. why didn't they at least make it an option that you can get rid of if you don't want to use it? and gmail....don't get me started. the changes suck. what were they thinking.?!?

My igoogle home page was just changed and I HATE it!!Having tabs at the side makes the three columns too harrow.To open the gadget and see the entries now takes two clicks instead of one.I don't want to look at the gadgets full screen - my gadgets are rss feeds with a list of links to primarily news stories. This changed has doubled my access times.

I just learned about this today when I was unpleasantly surprised to find the changes. I don't like the loss of space with the tabs, I don't want the changes in the display -- now I must scroll to see what I want to see. Is it possible to opt out of the new look?

I reloaded my iGoogle page to get welcomed by this waste of space! What the heck is this. The old layout was perfect, why would you want to waste 1/3 of your screen on a bar telling you what you have on the page! This is a mess, it doesn't even look better than the old layout. The old layout was perfect, I loved my iGoogle page, and then I refreshed it and I get greeted with this mess they call "new". Give us an option, I absolutely hate this layout.